White cop shoots unarmed Black Man at Gas Station

[myth]

Some of it is poor training... here's the classic video of this woman cop who obviously had her FINGER ON THE TRIGGER, and with adrenalin flowing, didn't realize she was actually pulling on the trigger, discharging her weapon accidentally near the head of this man who was already restrained. In almost EVERY picture you see of combat soldiers, their index finger is STRAIGHT along the side of the weapon, not inside the trigger guard, unless they fully intend to discharge a round. If this woman had utilized that practice, her gun would not have accidentally discharged.

This is complicated by the very sensitive "pull" of most semi-auto triggers. It didn't happen NEARLY as often with revolvers.

I suppose that is a negative for certain semi-autos, though I've never experienced or personally seen such an occurrence.That's really when poor training and sloppy attitudes reveal themselves. We carry Sig P220R's, and I've been more than satisfied with mine (grows on me every year). Perhaps the double-action trigger pull (12-14 lbs as opposed to 2-4 lbs) on the first round helps in that regard.

[Cow Poke]

I suppose that is a negative for certain semi-autos, though I've never experienced or personally seen such an occurrence.That's really when poor training and sloppy attitudes reveal themselves. We carry Sig P220R's, and I've been more than satisfied with mine (grows on me every year). Perhaps the double-action trigger pull (12-14 lbs as opposed to 2-4 lbs) on the first round helps in that regard.

yeah!

[Cow Poke]

I typically consider the phrase 'bad cop' to have connotations of dishonesty or corruption, so I don't think I'd call him that without knowing more about him.

But he obviously made the wrong decision here. I think the situation's tragic on both ends: (1) an innocent civilian was shot, and (2) a man has lost his career and is probably facing prison time because he panicked for a few short seconds. Its so disheartening to read stuff like this.

Way back when I was a cop, there was the big push for diversity... minorities, including women, were hired and rushed through academy, and qualification scores were lowered to help them pass. I thought that was a HUGE mistake, as I personally knew a woman who was INCREDIBLY dangerous with a firearm, but was certified to serve. You have to wonder what kind of training some of these people have been through.

Also, way back when, it was MOSTLY ex-military becoming cops, so they were quite familiar both with firearms and self discipline.

[myth]

Yup. I've seen some of that myself. Back in the academy, I had just left the line after doing a shotgun course when my buddy comes over to me. "Stay away from her" he said, pointing to one of the two women in our class. See, she was a lot shorter than him and was standing beside him on the line. Apparently he heard her rack a round and when he looked over, her 12 gauge was pointed directly at his head. So he ducks aside, only to observe (to his horror) that her finger was inside the trigger-guard while she racked the round at his head. Luckily, she didn't make it to graduation.

Though I have to say, I work with some women who are excellent cops. And as you can imagine, as an agency we're also benefiting from all these soldiers coming back home from our current war and looking for work. We're a small town, but we've picked up recruits with some very impressive backgrounds. I'm talking scout/snipers, special ops guys, military police, all kinds of stuff. We're lucky they're from the area, or we'd never have been able to recruit them in the first place.

[DesertBerean]

We have ex Marines join our local PD and the Sheriff's dept.